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Snapshots of the retarded interaction of charge carriers with ultrafast fluctuations in cuprates

Nature Physics volume 11, pages 421–426 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

One of the pivotal questions in the physics of high-temperature superconductors is whether the low-energy dynamics of the charge carriers is mediated by bosons with a characteristic timescale. This issue has remained elusive as electronic correlations are expected to greatly accelerate the electron–boson scattering processes, confining them to the very femtosecond timescale that is hard to access even with state-of-the-art ultrafast techniques. Here we simultaneously push the time resolution and frequency range of transient reflectivity measurements up to an unprecedented level, enabling us to directly observe the ∼16 fs build-up of the effective electron–boson interaction in hole-doped copper oxides. This extremely fast timescale is in agreement with numerical calculations based on the t–J model and the repulsive Hubbard model, in which the relaxation of the photo-excited charges is achieved via inelastic scattering with short-range antiferromagnetic excitations.

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Figure 1: Equilibrium and non-equilibrium optical properties of Y-Bi2212UD at T = 300 K.
Figure 2: Microscopic calculation of the energy transfer from a photo-excited hole to local antiferromagnetic bonds through the out-of-equilibrium t–J model (see Methods for further details).
Figure 3: Ultrafast dynamics of the electron–boson interaction.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Cilento, G. Coslovich, D. Fausti, F. Parmigiani, D. Mihailović, P. Prelovšek, V.V. Kabanov, U. Bovensiepen, M. Eckstein, A. Avella, D. van der Marel, L. Boeri, L. de’ Medici, A. Cavalleri, D. Manske, B. Keimer and D.J. Scalapino for useful and fruitful discussions. We gratefully acknowledge D. Bonn and B. Keimer for support in the development of the MPI-UBC Tl2201OD research effort. The research activities of S.D.C., F.B, G.F., M.C. and C.G. received funding from the European Union, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 2007-2013), under Grant No. 280555 (GO FAST). S.D.C. received financial support from Futuro through Ricerca grant No. RBFR12SW0J of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. L.V. is supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. M.M. acknowledges support from the DEC-2013/09/B/ST3/01659 project of the Polish National Science Center. The Y-Bi2212UD crystal growth work was performed in M.G.’s previous laboratory at Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA, and supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The work at UBC was supported by the Max Planck—UBC Centre for Quantum Materials, the Killam, A. P. Sloan, Alexander von Humboldt, and NSERC’s Steacie Memorial Fellowships (A.D.), the Canada Research Chairs Program (A.D.), NSERC, CFI, and CIFAR Quantum Materials. M.C. is financed by the European Research Council through FP7/ERC Starting Grant SUPERBAD, Grant Agreement 240524. J.B. acknowledges support by the P1-0044 of ARRS, Slovenia and Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences user facility. G.C. acknowledges support by the EC under Graphene Flagship (contract no. CNECT-ICT-604391). N.D.Z. acknowledges support from the NCCR project ‘Materials with Novel Electronic Properties’ and appreciates expert collaboration with J. Karpinski.

Author information

Author notes

  1. S. Dal Conte and L. Vidmar: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica, IFN-CNR, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy

    S. Dal Conte, G. Soavi, D. Brida & G. Cerullo

  2. Department of Physics and Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, D-80333 München, Germany

    L. Vidmar

  3. J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

    L. Vidmar, D. Golež & J. Bonča

  4. Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, 40-007 Katowice, Poland

    M. Mierzejewski

  5. i-LAMP (Interdisciplinary Laboratories for Advanced Materials Physics), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia I-25121, Italy

    S. Peli, F. Banfi, G. Ferrini & C. Giannetti

  6. Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy

    S. Peli

  7. Department of Physics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia I-25121, Italy

    F. Banfi, G. Ferrini & C. Giannetti

  8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada

    R. Comin, B. M. Ludbrook, L. Chauviere & A. Damascelli

  9. Quantum Matter Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada

    R. Comin, B. M. Ludbrook, L. Chauviere & A. Damascelli

  10. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    L. Chauviere

  11. Laboratory for Solid State Physics, ETH, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

    N. D. Zhigadlo

  12. Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan

    H. Eisaki

  13. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

    M. Greven

  14. CNR-IOM Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma La Sapienza P.le Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy

    S. Lupi

  15. Department of Physics and Center for Applied Photonics, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

    D. Brida

  16. CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center and Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy

    M. Capone

  17. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

    J. Bonča

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  1. S. Dal Conte
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Contributions

C.G., S.D.C. and G.C. conceived the experiments. L.V., M.M. and J.B. conceived the out-of-equilibrium calculations. C.G. coordinated the research activities with input from all the coauthors, in particular S.D.C., L.V., J.B., M.M., M.C., A.D. and G.C. The broadband pump–probe set-up was designed and developed by D.B. and G.C. The time-resolved optical measurements were performed by S.D.C., G.S., S.P., L.C., D.B. and G.C. The analysis of the time-resolved data was performed by S.D.C. and C.G. The out-of-equilibrium t–J model calculations were performed by L.V., D.G., M.M. and J.B. The DMFT calculations were carried out by M.C. The Y-Bi2212 crystals were grown and characterized by H.E., M.G., R.C. and A.D. The Tl-2201 crystals were grown and characterized by L.C. The characterization and measurement of the equilibrium optical properties of the Bi2201 crystals were performed by S.L. The MgB2 crystals were grown by N.D.Z. and characterized by B.M.L. and N.D.Z. The text was written by C.G. with major input from S.D.C., L.V., M.M., J.B., F.B., G.F., M.G., S.L., M.G., M.C., A.D., D.B. and G.C. All authors extensively discussed the results and the interpretation and revised the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to S. Dal Conte, L. Vidmar or C. Giannetti.

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Dal Conte, S., Vidmar, L., Golež, D. et al. Snapshots of the retarded interaction of charge carriers with ultrafast fluctuations in cuprates. Nature Phys 11, 421–426 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3265

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